soapfan770

Wow thanks for sharing the exact details. Mini series were always weird affairs to me growing up I definitely remember being forced to watch The Day After repeats and Lonesome Dive as a family. By the 1990’s miniseries were such sorry affairs lol. CBS did a multi day Gone with the Wind sequel with Timothy Dalton and offered up a Titanic miniseries ahead of Titanic. ABC did a lot of Stephen King stuff and a Cleopatra series, while NBC pretty much mimicked whatever blockbuster was about to come out for the two part Sunday & Monday night movies save for 1997’s The Odyssey which I still like to this day. LOL only thing is I couldn’t imagine what Wyman and Ball would have thought about each other although both had worked as Goldwyn Girls together in the 1930s

I thought Fresno was well-received as remember watching it on YouTube many years ago but as it was a parody I suppose it probably didn’t attract the attention of the most famous epic mini series dramas. For sure I don’t think Lucille Ball fully understood her style hadn’t evolved and wasn’t up to par with the times. Neither Ball or Gale Gordon needed to star in a physical comedy at their age, and trying to use the same writers from the Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy was doomed from the start as was Spelling relinquishing full control. Maybe Ball should have done a short stint on Falcon Crest in 1986 instead as that was the height of the show’s parade of Hollywood Golden Age stars coming and going.

Couple that haven’t been mentioned yet: Victor St. Lawrence and Karla Mosley: Remy/Christina GL, Carter/Maye B&B Ricky Paul Goldin and Beth Ehlers: Gus/Harley GL, Jake/Taylor AMC Eric Martsolf and Lindsay Hartley: Ethan/Theresa Passions, Brady/Arianna Days

😴😴😴😴😴

Not surprised as that season was a hot mess with the season premiere trying to address the Rodney King riots while at the same time having a client played by Dan Castellaneta run around LA in a Homer Simpson costume. Tinker & Masius made good drama on other shows but were toxic together trying to follow up DEK.

I remember that now and definitely for sure, especially it was mentioned about L.A. Law originating on a Friday night. If recall right for Season 4 a pre-L&O Dick Wolf took over the show and received a very chilly reception and the show went off the rails causing ratings to somewhat behind Falcon Crest when it returned to the the 10PM slot. There was also something of a change of habit for Friday night viewership in the late 80’s and early 90’s as more people went out on Friday (and Saturday) nights. Oh sure ABC’s sitcoms and The X-Files achieved 18-49 demographic success as things moved around or aged out it gave rise to the Friday Night Death Slot until CBS found ratings success with Blue Bloods lol.

LOL! I recall the show had some cute and funny moments but it was essentially a Different Strokes clone.

Despite ABC having a messy 1985-86 season, they were still just two years away from surpassing CBS to become the #2 network. 85-86 was the peak of Miami Vice wasn’t it? Seems kind of short lived for a show that made such a cultural impact at the time: 1984-85: #40 1985-86: #9 1986-87: #26 1987-88: #45 1988-89: #58

Aldrich was absolutely dreadful in the role and once the show realized it she just faded away into the background until they simply wrote Victoria for like 2 months until HT returned. HT has also directed some episodes of Dynasty 2.0 before it ended I wonder if she has directed other primetime shows. I could easily see either Sarah Buxton or Jamie Luner as Phyllis. Buxton would’ve been entertaining in the role as Stafford pretty much stopped acting after 2006 or so lol. Billy has pretty much become the Mike Horton or Tom Hughes of our time with so many recasts. I’m not sure who would make a good Billy besides bringing back David Tom because the writing for Billy has been bad for years now.

A bit late but I laughed when I read this as I will always remember Brittany for her character on Melrose having a tirade, calling Jane a whore and then getting immediately blown to smithereens by Kimberly’s bomb lol. (I thought it was a bit unbelievable Brittnay was married to Muldoon’s Richard character too). But I get what you’re saying about Katherine and agree. I also thought her ‘87 return was a bit unnecessary too but I guess since she didn’t die they had to show her at some point. As for Brittany herself I read a few years back she was working as some “conservative media entertainment hostess” or something and that lessened my previously neutral (or lack of) opinion of her.

Yeah I had to snicker as well when I read first read the Sheila/Deacon/Bill spoiler. I do think SK & KB make great screen partners, even better than when Deacon was Quinn’s friend. Too bad they couldn’t redeem themselves together over time instead of the drivel we’ve gotten. The Sally story sounds like a tawdry combo of what we’ve seen in the past with Chelsea, Sage, and Sharon. Meh. At least the Nate spoiler sounds interesting.

As some would say is it sweeps month or sleeps month? First up is Y&R: B&B:

Imani was better developed and had a clear agenda to not only make Nate hers, but also make him superior. Sly and cunning while compassionate with a hint of danger she was definitely more dynamic than her rival Elena. Audra strikes me as a opportunist with no loyalty to any of her men so far including Nate, Tucker, and Noah as she had been chem tested with Chance & Kyle as well. At least Imani was loyal to the man she wanted. I like the actress who plays Audra, but for sure there isn’t much rooting value for a flip-flopper like Audra.

It’d be fun to see a Nate/Victoria pairing but I think we’ll get Nate/Audra one night stand first. It seems me that they continuing what they started with Imani with Audra in her place instead unfortunately. Sigh. She was basically telling Nate the same things Imani use to tell Nate yesterday and boosting his ego I.e. “I like it when you make a power move”.

What’s interesting is Y&R had done something similar with Victor earlier that year that year leading up to Victor’s “death” but unlike the GL scene it was all private affairs i.e. Jack and Victor’s fight, Victor’s final confrontations with Nikki, Ashley, and Victoria. A lot of soaps made an effort to make a splashy effort for big public reveals and scandals, but sometimes it became so cliched that it becomes embarrassing. @Vee @DRW50 Those 1993 scenes do still remind me of the hilariously over the top 1995 trial of Janet from Another Planet on AMC.

Pretty much the same thing I summed up as well about the recasts. If Bev and JC were around and if we had a stronger Mindy be it Krista or Kimberly (but definitely not Ann Hamilton) the scene would have been a lot more powerful. Plus wasn’t Mindy on a date with the ill fated Patrick Cutter (and not Nick) anyways? I can’t recall when Roger learned about Peter but it definitely wasn’t until 1994 and he stayed out of the custody battle between Vanessa and Bridget before theta agreed to share custody.

Very true, and Billy beat the [!@#$%^&*] out of Roger triggered their early 90’s rivalry mixed in with Billy’s marriage to Nadine and of course raising Peter. Probably the best twist was Roger was busy trying to frame Billy for the deed and was a bit shocked to realize that Billy was indeed the one who shot him.

LOL. Outlandish for sure but I thought it was fun. Obviously having so many recasts (Alex, Billy, Mindy x2) in an important storyline hurt it overall but at the time and still do I enjoyed the Who Shot Roger story complete with Roger being alive in Holly’s basement (the bullet was still in him?) and stalking the town in secret. The biggest disappointments of course for me was wasting Bess Lowell and of course lame Geoffrey Scott’s Billy, who of course ended up being the shooter. Maybe if JC had still been around it would have been better, but the conclusion ended up on a whimper and when Billy returned to town in 96/97 we had both Parlato’s Roger shrug it off.

Thanks!! Somehow I missed that until I saw Jess Walton’s FB post last night.

The 50th Anniversary cast photo revealed:

@Vee The name of the 83-90 theme is “My Guiding Light” by Rob Mounsey, who of course went on to compose Hold on To Love. A little history from Daytime Themes & Openings: In the fall of 1981, Procter and Gamble decided to change the openings on most of its soaps to make them more competitive with the dominant ABC soaps and to update their visual look. As part of the change, Guiding Light briefly went disco. A new splashy disco-style theme by Jack Urbont now accompanied a main title that started with a burst of light from the middle of some round, amber-colored abstract glass sculpture. What followed was a parade of clips from the show featuring action-packed scenes and close-ups and two-shots of all the main characters. The sequence ended with a return to that abstract light sculpture as the title of the show came up in gold and white metallic wedge-like italic letters. The end credits, which were now set against a revolving abstract glass sculpture with twinkling lights, remained in the same gold and white Helvetica Bold setup as before. However, except for three main cast members (Charita Bauer, Millette Alexander and Don Stewart), the cast was now billed in alphabetical order. The strict ABC order setup for the cast credits remains in effect to this day. The short-lived Urbont theme and its accompanying opening and closing visuals debuted by no later than January 4, 1982. When Gail Kobe took over as Guiding Light's executive producer in March of 1983, she quickly instituted a more sweeping overhaul that included new cue music by Elliot Lawrence Productions and a new theme song. The new theme, "My Guiding Light" by Rob Mounsey, was originally done in a full-orchestral Eb major arrangement. This new theme debuted on August 22, 1983, after a run of only about 400 episodes for the Urbont theme! While the basic look of the opening montage and closing end credit visuals remained the same, there were changes such as slower transitions from one clip to another in the opening cast montage and a thinner form of Helvetica type for the end credits. From the fall of 1985 to the October 1986, a synthesized C Major arrangement of "My Guiding Light" was used over the opening, and different arrangements of the theme were used over an end credit "beauty shot." (The end credit beauty shot lasted until the spring of 1986, when Joseph Willmore took over as executive producer.) In October 1986, a high tech dance arrangement of "My Guiding Light" debuted over a new opening visual, which had the by-then familiar cast montage and the title of the show, in the same lettering design as that introduced in 1981/82, now set in a clear transparent glasslike sculpture against a blue sky background. The dance arrangement of "My Guiding Light" lasted until the summer of 1989, when it was replaced by a musical setting similar to 1985/86. From October 1986 to the summer of 1989, the end credits were set against a white background, but they were now in black and gold Korinna semibold lettering. Then the format changed to gold and white Korinna semibold letters against the same blue-sky background as the main logo.

Yes to all of this. I mean I wouldn’t have mind seeing Nate find success and media attention with his Ask MD website or whatever but the switch to a media executive was the worst.

There’s been some great Back from the dead stories already mentioned i.e. Roger on GL, Victor on Y&R, Hope on Days, Kathleen and Carl on AW etc. Macy on B&B had a good story until they killed her off again. I think where it gets muddled is it either happens too much I.e. Days’s deaths or James Stenbeck on ATWT. Or lazily using it was a bad plot device for an already horrible storyline, like Jack on ATWT or Malcolm and Sharon on Y&R.

After reading some comments about the amount of families Guiding Light introduced between 1977-1987, it made me think about a who’s who of new families that successfully were integrated into the show. On the flip side, I can easily think of the number of families that arrived into a show’s town already DOA. Some successful new families I can think of include: ATWT: Snyders, Carly/Rosanna/Molly/Gwen AW: Love/Hudson B&B: Spectras Days: Bradys, Reeds/Roberts GL: Spauldings, Lewises Y&R: Abbotts, Barber/Winters Unsuccessful families include: ATWT: Kasnoffs (except for Mike) B&B: Ramirez family Days: Scofield family GL: Santos family Y&R: Rayburn family, Rosales

Only for the curious die hardest GL fans of course….. No doubt in my mind that in addition to the major budgetary issues GL that any additional issues the show had were tripled down on by an emotionally unmoored Executive Producer who was out of her league. Not saying it would have bought the show more time but it would’ve have been nice to have a more stable EP in those tough times.